New panel will decide civic official's fate

MUMBAI: Suspended assistant municipal commissioner Sahebrao Ghadge Patil would have been dismissed a year ago if the administration had its way.
Instead, he got a new lease of life last Wednesday when chairperson Datta Dalvi of the Sena said a new sub-committee of corporators would decide Mr Patil’s fate. Last year, the civic administration found Mr Patil guilty of regularising illegal structures in Pydhonie and Ghatkopar.
A full-fledged inquiry committee appointed to look into his allegedly misdeeds found that Mr Patil had also wrongfully allocated land to some shopkeepers in Santa Cruz.
The committee had suggested various penalties for Mr Patil, but municipal commissioner Karun Srivastava contended that dismissal was the best way to penalise him.
However, for the past 13 months, the committee has been postponing its discussion on the matter. The matter has twice been referred back for the administration to make changes in the proposal and not taken up for discussion 12 times.